Yemen's Saleh calls for early elections

Sep 25, 2011, 11:05 a.m.

A still image taken from video shows Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh speaking during his first televised speech since he returned to Yemen after more than three months in Saudi Arabia, September 25, 2011. REUTERS/Yemen TV via Reuters TV

By Erika Solomon and Mohammed Ghobari

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni President Abdullah Ali Saleh called for early elections on Sunday in his first speech since returning to Yemen but his latest peace formula is unlikely to appease protesters who want nothing less than his immediate departure.

Saleh, speaking as a sixth day of violence raised the death toll to more than 100 lives, said he was committed to transferring power through elections.

But since the crisis began in January when protesters took to the streets demanding that he quit, the embattled Yemeni president has been prodigal in proposals to end the eight-month-old violence but followed up on none that entail him surrendering power.

Saleh, who returned on Friday from Saudi Arabia where he sought treatment after a June assassination attempt, reiterated his acceptance of a Gulf power transfer and said the vice-president retained authority to hold talks with the opposition.

"Let's all go toward dialogue, understanding and peaceful exchange of power through elections and early presidential elections," he said in the televised speech.

Traditional Arab head gear covered most of Saleh's head and neck while an elaborate flower arrangement hid his hands in an apparent bid to disguise injuries sustained in a June bombing of the presidential palace.

Yemeni officials and diplomats involved in political negotiations to ease Saleh out had said the direction the crisis takes will hinge on the president's words on Sunday evening.

Protesters, watching the speech in tents in Sanaa's central Change Square, were disappointed.

"We're so used to this there's nothing new in the speech. It's the same story, the same politics, he talks to us as if we're children," said Saeed, 30, a protester watching the speech in the central square. "He's just talking and talking about this initiative and we haven't seen any action."

Earlier on Sunday Yemeni soldiers killed two tribal fighters and wounded 18 anti-government protesters in the latest clashes in a week of bloodshed that has raised fears of a descent into all-out civil war.

For the first time since six days of battles between opposition and loyalist forces erupted in Sanaa, the clashes spread outside the capital. Two pro-opposition tribal fighters were killed in the mountainous outskirts of Sanaa when the army shelled an area where the two sides had been clashing.

In Sanaa, soldiers used live rounds against thousands of unarmed protesters singing and chanting "God is great, Freedom" as they marched out of their protest camp and into the capital's busy streets.

"I saw soldiers from above, in buildings and on the bridge," said Mohammed al-Mas, 21, a protester whose back was drenched in blood from a gunshot wound. "Then the gunfire started and I ran back, but I suddenly felt the shot in the back."

A local photographer said the violence was caused by one soldier who opened fire with a machine gun, but other protesters said they saw 10 troops open fire.

Eighteen people were wounded and medics said two were in critical condition. Doctors drenched in blood worked on bullet wounds at a makeshift hospital in "Change Square," the name protesters have given the shanty town of tents they have staked out in the middle of Sanaa.